PART I. in the same proportion ought we to attach more value to an Education which, though it only teaches a child to read, has, in doing so, taught him also to think, than we should to one which, though it may have bestowed on him the husks and the shells of half a dozen sciences, has never taught him to use with pleasure and effect his reflective faculties. He who can think, and loves to think, will become, if he has a few good books, a wise man. He who knows not how to think, or who hates the toil of doing it, will remain imbecile, though his mind be crowded with the contents of a library. Physical training, "This is at present perhaps the greatest fault in intellectual Education: The new power with which the discoveries of the last three centuries have clothed civilized man, renders knowledge an object of unbounded respect and desire; while it is forgotten that that knowledge can be matured and appropriated only by the vigorous exercise and application of all our intellectual faculties. If the mind of a child, when learning, remains nearly passive, merely receiving knowledge as a vessel receives water which is poured into it, little good can be expected to accrue. It is as if food were introduced into the stomach which there is no room to digest or assimilate, and which will therefore be rejected from the system, or like a useless and oppressive load upon its energies." On the developement of the physical powers I need say but a few words. A system of instruction making no provision for those exercises which contribute to health and vigour of body, and to agreeableness of manners, must necessarily be imperfect. The active pursuits of most of those pupils who attend the public Schools, require the exercise necessary to bodily health; but the gymnastics, regularly taught as a re creation, and with a view to the future pursuits of the PART I. pupil, and to which so much importance is attached in the best British Schools and in the Schools of Germany and France, are advantageous in various respects, promote not only physical health and vigour, but social cheerfulness, active, easy and graceful movements. They strengthen and give the pupil a perfect command over all the members of his body. Like the art of writing, they proceed from the simplest movement, to the most complex and difficult exercises, imparting a bodily activity and skill scarcely credible to those who have not witnessed them. To the culture and command of all the faculties of Its importhe mind, a corresponding exercise and controul of all tance. the members of the body is next in importance. It was young men thus trained that composed the vanguard of Blucher's army; and much of the activity, enthusiasm and energy which distinguished them, was attributed to their gymnastic training at school. A training which gives superiority in one department of active life, must be beneficial in another. It is well known, as has been observed by physiologists, that "the muscles of any part of the body when worked by exercise, draw additional nourishment from the blood, and by the repetition of the stimulus, if it be not exercise, increase in size, strength and freedom of action. The regular action of the muscles promotes and preserves the uniform circulation of the blood, which is the prime condition of health. The strength of the body or of a limb depends upon the strength of the muscular system, or of the muscles of the limb; and as the consitutional muscular endowment of most people is tolerably good, the diversities of muscular power, observable amongst men, is chiefly attributable to exercise." The youth PART I. of Canada are designed for active, and most of them for laborious occupations; exercises which strengthen not one class of muscles, or the muscles of certain members only, but which develope the whole physical system, cannot fail to be beneficial. Opinions of cationists. The application of these remarks to common day Schools must be very limited. They are designed to apply chiefly to boarding and training, to Industrial and Grammar Schools,—to those Schools to the masters of which the prolonged and thorough educational instruction of youth is entrusted. To physical Education great importance has been attached by the best educators in all ages and coundern Edu- tries. Plato gave as many as a thousand precepts respecting it. It formed a prominent feature in the best parts of the education of the Greeks and Romans. It has been largely insisted upon by the most distinguished educational writers in Europe, from Charon and Montaigne, down to numerous living authors in France and Germany, England and America. It occupies a conspicuous place in the codes of School Regulations in France and Switzerland, and in many places in Germany. The celebrated Pestalozzi and De Fellenberg incorporated it as an essential part of their systems of instruction, and even as necessary to their success; and experienced American writers and physioligists attribute the want of physical developement and strength, and even health, in a disproportionally large number of educated Americans, to the absence of proper provisions and encouragements in respect to appropriate physical exercises in the Schools, Academies and Colleges of the United States. Subjects for teach ing for 5. Having thus stated that an efficient system of Public Instruction should not only be commensurate should be with the wants of the poorest classes of society, but PART I. practical in its character, Christian in its foundation, which proprinciples and spirit, and involving a proper develope- vision ment of the intellectual and physical faculties of its made. subjects, I come now to consider the several branches of knowledge which should be taught in the Schools, and for the efficient teaching of which public provision should be made. of Biblical tion. 1. The subject of Christian Instruction has been Incidental sufficiently explained and discussed; I will only add advantages here, that in the opinion of the most competent judges Instruc-experienced Teachers of different countries that I have visited, and able authors-the introduction of Biblical Instruction into Schools, so far from interfering with other studies, actually facilitates them, as has been shown by references to numerous facts. Besides, it is worthy of remark, that apart from the principles and morals-perceptive and biographical-of the Bible, it is the oldest, the most authentic of Ancient Histories. Moses is not only by many ages the "Father of History," or as Bossuet in his Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle, eloquently says, " le plus ancien des historiens, le plus sublime des philosophes, le plus sage des législateurs;" but the grand periods of the Mosaic History form the great chronological epochs of Universal History; the standard indeed of general Chronology, one of the "two eyes of History." Any one the least acquainted with Ancient History knows, that as there are no chronological data so authentic and authoritative as those of Moses, so there are none so easily remembered-none which associate in the mind events so remarkable, and important, none which are fraught with so much practical instruction. The Bible History reaches back to an antiquity two thousand years more remote PART I than the fabulous periods of other histories. It is authentic and certain from the commencement; it contains the only genuine account of the origin and early history of the world, as well as of the creation and primitive history of man. As the best introduction to general history as well as the only Divine depository of truth and morals, the Bible is pre-eminent. The London Encyclopedia justly observes: "The most pure and most fruitful source of Ancient History is doubtless to be found in the Bible. Let us here for a moment cease to regard it as a Divine, and presume to treat it only as a common history. Now when we consider the writers of the books of the Old Testament, sometimes as authors, sometimes as occular witnesses, and sometimes as respectable historians, whether we reflect on the simplicity of the . narration, and the air of truth that is there constantly visible, or whether we consider the care that the people, the governments, and the learned men of all ages have taken to preserve the text, or have regard to the happy conformity of the Chronology of the Scriptures with that of Profane History, as well as with that of Josephus and other Jewish writers; and lastly, when we consider that the books of the Holy Scripture alone furnish us with an accurate history of the world, from the Creation, through the line of Patriarchs, Judges, Kings, and Princes of the Hebrews; and that we may, by its aid, form an almost entire series of events down to the birth of Christ, or the time of Augustus, which comprehends a space of about four thousand years, some small interruptions excepted, which are easily supplied by profane history; when all these reflections are justly made, we must allow that the Scriptures form a series of books |